Research Questions

Our research initiative aims at forms of cooperation and organisation that produce synergy effects through inter- and transdisciplinary approaches and historical profoundness. Our main research questions are:

Which differences are evaluated as important in diverging societies and why? How are they constructed and respectively de-constructed?

To what extent do existing categories of difference shape social conflicts, and are these changed, amplified or created in the first place through conflicts? On the other hand, how far do social clashes yield resources and opportunities for individual and social development?

What are the implications for various policy areas (social, cultural, integration and development policies, equal opportunities and anti-discrimination work, as well as intercultural pedagogy)?

Which concepts and theoretical approaches are appropriate to analyse the research questions in a manner that accounts for the historicity of the given phenomenon whilst considering that theory has so far understood social and cultural categories of the western world as normative.